Part of what I enjoy about photography is the editing process. These days there are a lot of editing software choices on the market. Then once you are settled on one that you like, the edit options within that software are usually extensive. That’s great. Except when it is so much that it becomes a distraction. The reality is that I shoot a lot of photos like this:
ISO 200 70mm f/16 1/250sec
When I then open this photo in the edit tab of Luminar 3 I have a lot of filter options, but there are a few that I almost always use. The rest are helpful sometimes but are just clutter to my process at other times. A way to clear that clutter is to create a custom workspace with just select filters. I did just that and here is what it looks like:
To create this, I did the following. First, where the dropdown now says “Amy 1”, I clicked the down arrow, and selected “clear workspace”. Then from the filters I picked the ones I almost always use and in the order I use them, opened them, that added them to the list you see there. Then I clicked again on that down arrow and one of the options is “save custom workspace” it then prompted me for a name, that’s when I added “Amy 1”. Now anytime I open a new image, I can click that down arrow and my saved workspace is there. Or, even better, I also clicked to have that show as the default. Here are those filters applied to my original image:
ISO 200 70mm f/16 1/250sec
From there I could have added more filters and done some other editing. Sometimes I will, but in this case, I wasn’t really looking to do anything else with this image.
I spend quite a bit of time thinking about my photography workflow. My hope is that this workspace will make the process a bit smoother. Do you use a custom workspace in your editing process? I never have before so this is just something I’m giving a try. Feel free to comment on that or on my edit below.
Cheers!
Added to Tuesday Photo Challenge, Round.
Photography Journal Blog 
To be honest Amy we are now just geting used to using Lightroom. Our editing has been minimal to this point but I have to say watching all of your processes have been pushing me to learn more. I appreciate it!
LikeLike
Lightroom is a really robust editing software and I could easily see that being good enough for the ways in which you edit your photography 🙂
LikeLiked by 2 people
Great tip, Amy! I haven’t try the workspace. I’m still on Lr. I have watched Luminar 3 on Youtube, and really like it. Some said that it takes a long time to save it, like several seconds. Is that true?
LikeLike
Yes, I would say that Luminar is attempting to be LR-like. I don’t find there to be a lag in saving files, but there is if you are exporting a full-size file. Also, while they are working on the Library feature, it’s not fully running yet. I am waiting for the ability to read keywords from my LR files before I will discontinue my Adobe products subscription. In terms of the actual edits, Luminar 3 is capable of, I am satisfied. They meet what I need and at a lower cost and an easier to understand layout.
LikeLike
As soon as the Library feature is up, I’ll discontinue Adobe too. 🙂 Thank you,Amy for sharing the updated information.
LikeLike
🙂
LikeLike
Lovely image made better Amy. I must admit although I’ve used and taken a class on Luminar it’s not my favorite. I like L/R and also P/S. But honestly, after having been forced out of aperture by Apple I’m convinced that using the industry leader is the safest way to go. I do use Luminar now and then but as a plug-in only. One could spend a lifetime l arming the tools only to have them change with each new revision!😡😡
LikeLike
I understand what you are saying here completely, having also been forced out of Aperture. It’s a personal thing, but Luminar meets what I need in terms of editing, and I have a lot of complaints about Adobe. Your decision to go with what is the industry standard is though is a smart choice in my opinion.
LikeLike
Thanks for sharing this information. I plan to set up my custom space the next time I am editing my photographs.
LikeLike
I’m glad you found it helpful. I’ll be curious to see in the long run if this is a feature I end up using a lot.
LikeLike
Lightroom now lets you rearrange the Develop panel, so I have the modules organized in the order I like to use them, with those I seldom use at the bottom (and mostly off-screen). Funny how a little change like that seems to make things so much easier. I did something similar in Color Efex Pro, creating a single recipe for the most used filters … but now and then I make sure to try others just to see what happens!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, so what you mention about remembering to try other filters now and then, is part of the reason I hadn’t tried the approach of setting up a workspace. I’ll see how that goes for me. I did not know that LR had added that feature to the develop panel, that’s good to know.
LikeLike
Creating custom flows has helped me in Photoshop as well. My problem is that many times I don’t know what I want to achieve with a photograph so have to try several things in trial-and-error fashion.
LikeLike
Yes, I can see that as a potential issue for me, the whole, “I’m not quite sure” thing…
However, it is possible in Luminar to click that same drop-down and “clear workspace” is an option if I want to completely start from scratch and add filters that way.
We will see how this goes, it’s definitely an experiment for me.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Very interesting post… It makes me think actually that I do very little post processing other than cropping through picture manager. I have been thinking about it but know knowt about the software.
LikeLike
Post-editing can be super time consuming if you let it. I think it is just one of those things where you just figure out what makes you happy in terms of the result and leave it at that. Also, there are a lot of editing software options!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Pingback: Tuesday Photo Challenge – Round Up 150 – Dutch goes the Photo!
I love the title of these posts: What I’m working on now. Makes me feel I’m there with you, Amy! also I’ve been experimenting with adjustments to my iphone photos using the basic editing tools in “Photos” on my Mac. Definitely nothing fancy, just a couple of sliders, one for light and one for color, but boy! they make a difference when you’ve taken a photo that’s too dark. 🙂
LikeLike
I agree, sometimes a simple thing like that can make a huge difference, and honestly, sometimes that’s really all a photo needs.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Exactly!
LikeLike
Great idea, Amy. Thanks for the step-by-step! I’m going to look into doing this in LR and Topaz.
LikeLike
Glad you found this helpful and good luck creating your own 🙂
LikeLike
The edit looks really clean.
I am still learning to edit with Lightroom, your blog is really helpful.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you.
LikeLiked by 1 person